It’s been a long-time coming, but in July the European Union finally adopted two legislative initiatives that create a single set of new online rules applicable across the bloc. The Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) are intended to create safer online spaces and bring more competition and transparency to digital markets.

“The DSA is largely focused on protecting individuals from the harms which are generally acknowledged to be proliferating in online environments,” Will Richmond-Coggan, a data and information law specialist at Freeths LLP explains, “while the DMA is primarily aimed at protecting smaller businesses from what are considered to be the market-distorting effects of certain companies referred to as ‘Gatekeepers’ having a broad grip on the fundamental ecosystems of the internet.”

Gatekeepers are defined as, among other things, having an “entrenched and durable position in the market” and those that “link a large user...